TECHNICAL: The SpotiSpray system from German tech company Geo-Konzept enables patches of field weeds to be spotted using a drone and then mapped for targeted control. Here we outline how it is done.
A good sprayer operator will have no problem flicking on and off sections to treat patches of weeds with a herbicide. But doing this for any length of time will soon become laborious, and the chances are that you will have to slow your forward speed to be able to be able to reliably tap the required button on the touchscreen or switch on the control box and even then there will be as many misses as hits. The advantage of accurate weed spot spraying is well established as clearly only treating areas infested with weeds will save herbicide and money. It can also help the agricultural sector cut chemical use and with it meet ever stringent environmental targets.
The solutions
There are a couple of ways in which targeted herbicide application can be controlled automatically. The first is employing an on-sprayer camera system to detect weed infestation and to automatically activate the relevant boom section as you spray. The Geo-Konzept DAT Ecopatch is one such system. It is the alternatives of using a drone to take aerial photos of the field to be sprayed that we consider here. By analysing crop pictures with image processing software, it is possible to identify weeds patches and to then create a job map that can then be used to control how the sprayer applies herbicide.
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